Doto pacifica Baba, 1949

Location: Iwahone, Jogashima, Kanagawa, Japan
Date: 2019/06/12
Length: 8mm
Depth: 15.0m
Water temperature: 19.0℃

Description

A tiny Dotidae, body length about 5 mm. There are five pairs of cerata: the first pair is small, the second is the largest, and the cerata gradually decrease in size posteriorly. As the diagnostic feature of the subgenus Gellina, all cerata are simple, somewhat swollen and fusiform, lacking surface tubercles. The rhinophore sheath margin is smooth. The rhinophores are very long. The positions of the genital orifice and anus are as in Doto japonica. Ground colour yellow-white; the central vein of the cerata is a distinctive purplish-red.

Distribution

Type locality is off Shira-ne, Sajima Island, Sagami Bay (15 m depth, August 1939, single specimen). The original description (Baba, 1949) records the species only from the type locality.

Etymology

The specific epithet pacifica is Latin for of the Pacific. The original description does not give an explicit etymology paragraph; the descriptive sense parallels the only previously known Gellina species, the French-coast Doto (Gellina) affinis (d'Orbigny), as a Pacific counterpart.

Remarks

Originally described as Doto (Gellina) pacifica. The simple, fusiform cerata lacking surface tubercles are the diagnostic character of subgenus Gellina. Geographic counterpart of Doto (Gellina) affinis (d'Orbigny).